Taunton Public LIbrary is 'more than just books'

TAUNTON — Daisy Delano isn’t overly sentimental about the so-called good old days, when people came to the library to borrow books and nothing but books.

“It’s not a negative,” she said of the popularity of lending DVD movies — which now account for roughly 15 percent of all physical and downloadable items circulated and borrowed from the Taunton Public Library.

Be it hardcover book, music CD, a book narrated on cassette tape or audio disc or an e-book, she says it’s all part of her library’s public-service DNA.

“We’re here to serve and fulfill the community,” said Delano, who this past Tuesday was appointed full-time director of Taunton Public Library following a stint as interim director.

Delano previously worked 12 years as assistant director and before that 29 years in the children’s library, which is located in the lower level of the Pleasant Street building.

For Delano, 65, there’s “equal success” knowing that someone walks out either with “five books or five DVDs in hand.”

“You really shouldn’t be surprised that we’re no longer just books,” she said during an interview in her first-floor office.

“We try to serve the entire community,” she said. “I’d like to think that everyone reads, but they don’t. Some people have no interest in books.”

Delano, however, is hardly discouraged by the changes in public taste when it comes to library loans.

“It’s always been an evolution,” she said of the U.S. public library system, and “it would be completely foolish to say we’re just books. We’ve always kept an open mind.”

“Libraries,” she adds, “have always surveyed and assessed the needs of the community.”

One trend that Delano said hasn’t caught on in a big way in Taunton is any real interest in borrowing unusual or odd items not normally associated with a library.

“It’s usually the smaller ones (libraries),” she said.

A Wall Street Journal story last March focused attention on libraries across the country that lend offbeat things.

Included was Northampton’s Forbes Library, which has been lending ukuleles, and the Southold, New York Free Library where fishing poles and tackle boxes can be borrowed.

Closer to Taunton, the Dighton Public Library has a collection of what it calls “maker kits” that can be checked out — including a knitting kit; cookie cutters; a balloon-animal kit; robotics kit; microscope and slides; and even a gummy bear maker.

But physical books still account for the bulk of circulated items, according to Dighton Public Library Director Jocelyn Tavares.

“Books aren’t going away — Dighton still reads,” she said.

Delano said the Taunton library a dozen or so years ago tried loaning art prints for people to take home and display.

“It ran it’s course,” said Delano, who says New Englanders tend to be “more traditional” and have less of an appetite for eccentric library items.

The Taunton Public Library is among 72 libraries in southeastern Massachusetts that utilizes the SAILS Library Network — a non-profit, private incorporation that provides inter-library resource sharing of DVDs and all forms of books, as well as newspaper and magazine articles.

Delano says the city’s library pays an annual fee to SAILS for the service known as OverDrive Libraries, which provides audio books, streaming video and eBooks.

“You log in, download and check it out just like a book,” she said.

Delano said she’s also now renewing a contract with multi-platform, distribution service Zinio, which provides downloading of thousands of digital-form magazines.

The Taunton Public Library, she said, now has 25,020 patrons on file.

Heidi Thompson said it’s been a few months since she moved to Taunton from Tacoma, Washington.

Thompson, 62, was taking advantage of the Taunton library’s WiFi service to use her Amazon Prime account to download and watch season one of the FX show “Fargo.”

“The people who work here are very kind and gracious to anyone who comes in the door,” she said.

Thompson said she enjoys relaxing in the library to watch “Fargo” on her Kindle Fire. But she also says it’s unfortunate that many people nowadays have little interest in picking up a book.

“If you don’t read you’re really missing out. It’s a habit that you learn,” she said.

Delano said the circulation of physical books, DVDs, eBook and audio book downloads for the month of March totaled 16,155.

Of that number, there were 2,498 DVDs borrowed and 12,620 in-hand books loaned and carried out.

The number of DVD loans in March 2017 compared to March 2016 increased nine percent, she said.